In order to understand the fragmentation and atomization characteristics of the liquid jet in transverse gas film, a pintle injection element using air and water as simulants is designed. The two-phase flow large eddy simulation and backlight imaging are used to study the liquid-jet breakup process and spray-field dynamic characteristics in the nearorifice area of pinte injection element under the atmospheric environment. The primary fragmentation process of the liquid jet dominated by surface wave is obtained by large eddy simulation, which reveals the establishment process of the spray field in near-orifice area of the gas-liquid pintle injector. After the subsonic airflow leaves the slit, it expands and accelerates into supersonic state. Then the deceleration and pressurization phenomenon occurs once the supersonic airflow passes through the detached bow shock upstream of the liquid jet. The liquid jet bends downstream due to the difference in pressure between upstream and downstream, and the Rayleigh-Taylor (R-T) unstable surface wave appears on the jet windward surface. As the surface wave develops, the penetration of the wave trough by airflow causes the continuous liquid jet to fragment. Proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) method can effectively reconstruct spray snapshot. The POD mode shows that the low-frequency spray oscillation in near-orifice area is caused by the overall expansion/contraction process of the spray field, while the high-frequency one is due to the “impact wave” movement of the liquid block or liquid mist group on the windward side. The latter is produced by the R-T unstable surface wave before the jet breakup, and can be categorized as traveling wave structure. The dimensionless traveling wave wavelength has a power-law relationship with Weber number.